# John Kerry and his SUV **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 26, 2004, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287 "2004-06-26T06:23:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![remisser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@remisser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/remisser)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/1 "2004-06-26T06:23:49Z")
In a frank exchange between a friend and myself on who we want to see as president (him Bush, myself Kerry) – I mentioned that Kerry would be a better president for the environment… an issue that is one of the most vital, in my opinion. He mentioned that Kerry said he was anti-SUV’s – but that his stance was hypocritical because his family owns SUV’s and other gas guzzling cars. My question is: Is this true? And does this reflect negatively on his environmental stances? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/2 "2004-06-26T06:42:05Z")
Is it fair to hold Kerry for what his family wants? If Kerry wants a fuel-efficient small sedan, and his wife wants an SUV, and he capitulates because he’s a supportive spouse, that’s not exactly a worthy criticism, IMO. Similarly, “his family” could refer to cousins, brothers, sisters, or parents; I don’t think anyone would reasonably argue that he be held to their purchasing decisions. Now, if Kerry says he’s strongly opposed to SUVs, then turns around and buys one for himself, _then_ there’s a point. But until we non-Kerry-family-members know what the reasoning is behind their automobile purchases, it’s hard to judge. ---
**Author:** ![remisser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@remisser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/remisser)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/3 "2004-06-26T06:57:13Z")
my friend said that it was his wife who owns the SUV. My friend also said that Kerry shouldn’t chastise people for buying the SUV’s if the family car is an SUV. Just to clarify. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/4 "2004-06-26T07:45:35Z")
Maybe he should help the environment by travelling everywhere exclusivly on his private jet. Or does his wife own that, too? ---
**Author:** ![E72521](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@E72521](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E72521)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/5 "2004-06-26T11:44:20Z")
According to [this](http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/04/286522.shtml) the Kerrys really do own one. > [@](#): > > ``I don’t own an SUV,’’ said Kerry, who supports increasing existing fuel economy standards to 36 miles per gallon by 2015 in order to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil supplies. > > Kerry also has made rising gasoline prices an issue in the campaign against President Bush. In Houston on Thursday, Kerry said the president broke a 2000 campaign pledge to ``jawbone’’ oil-producing nations by pressuring them to increase their output. > > Kerry thought for a second when asked whether his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had a Suburban at their Ketchum, Idaho, home. Kerry said he owns and drives a Dodge 600 and recently bought a Chrysler 300M. He said his wife owns the Chevrolet SUV. > > ``The family has it. I don’t have it,’’ he said. > > Kerry said it’s important for his family to buy American cars and pledged to keep car manufacturing jobs in the country if elected. He said he is interested in a hybrid car, and has talked to Ford about making it the ``campaign car.’’ But does it really [matter](http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,63413,00.html)? > [@](#): > > Data from independent product-testing organization Consumer Reports indicates that hybrid cars get less than 60 percent of EPA estimates while navigating city streets. In Consumer Reports’ real-world driving test, the Civic Hybrid averaged 26 mpg in the city, while the Toyota Prius averaged 35 mpg, much less than their respective EPA estimates of 47 and 60 mpg. Hybrid cars performed much closer to EPA estimates in Consumer Reports’ highway tests. **remisser** > [@](#): > > Kerry shouldn’t chastise people for buying the SUV’s if the family car is an SUV. Ask your friend to give us an example of Kerry chastising anyone for buying an SUV. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/6 "2004-06-26T13:17:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Kerry thought for a second when asked whether his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had a Suburban at their Ketchum, Idaho, home. Kerry said he owns and drives a Dodge 600 and recently bought a Chrysler 300M. He said his wife owns the Chevrolet SUV. I can see owning an SUV in Ketchum, Idaho, especially if the Kerrys use the home mostly in the winter. They’d need a vehicle that was good in bad driving conditions, in an area that’s not exactly thickly settled, is it? I happen to drive a Saturn, for its fuel economy among other things. An environmentally-conscious friend in New Hampshire drives a Yukon, and while I tease her about it, she’s justified. Her home is way back in the woods, accessible only by winding, narrow, hilly back roads, and she needs to haul a horse trailer from time to time. SUV’s chugging around big cities and suburbs, never leaving well-tended roadways, are one thing. SUV’s doing the job they were designed for are quite another. This is a nonissue for anyone who stops to think about it. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/7 "2004-06-26T13:20:17Z")
Knowing what I know about cars, 36 miles per gallon as a fleet average is about as probable as Mollier’s flying car hitting mass production. 30, maybe. 30 could be done. But 36? Well, I’d start investing in used cars. Because the hybrids don’t do it, and the tests are broken on them, anyhow. It’ll work as well as California’s demand for 10 percent electric vehicles by 2000. Remember how well that worked? ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/8 "2004-06-26T16:59:18Z")
Rush has a complete listing of all the Kerry family vehicles. This has been out there for awhile, but I haven’t heard anyone deny it being true. [http://www.rushonline.com/kerry/kerry-suv.htm](http://www.rushonline.com/kerry/kerry-suv.htm) > [@](#): > > At last count, there were eight "family’’ cars and SUVs, including the 1995 Suburban (15 mpg highway, 12 mpg city), a 1993 Land Rover Defender (12 mpg highway, 10 mpg city), a 1989 Jeep Cherokee (20 mpg highway, 16 mpg city), a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee (20 mpg highway, 15 mpg city), a 2001 Audi Allroad (21 mpg highway, 15 mpg city), a 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser (25 mpg highway, 20 mpg city), a 1985 Dodge 600 Convertible (26 mpg highway, 23 mpg city), and a 2002 Chrysler 300M (26 mpg highway, 18 mpg city). Kerry, however, only owns up to the latter two. ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/9 "2004-06-26T17:10:35Z")
Gee, a politician, who has to move a lot of campaign staff and material around constatnly, owning a SUV. Somehow, I wouldn’t be shocked. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/10 "2004-06-26T17:14:13Z")
What, the Bushes rely on public transport? If you gave me one dollar for every time a Bush rode in a chauffuered limo, and I gave you five for every time one of them paid bus fare, I could spend my days rolling about on a bed of $100 bills with a bevy of anorexic supermodels. Not that I would, you understand. Just that I could. If I wanted to. Which I wouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/11 "2004-06-26T17:18:35Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Just that I could. Haven’t we recently learned that that is the worst possible reason for doing something? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/12 "2004-06-26T17:24:55Z")
For you, maybe. My doctor advises that I have, at most, another 50 years to live, and I have already squandered an equal number trying to be good. My canonization has been witheld on the technicality that I am not, in fact, Catholic, or, more to the point, dead. Details, details… ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/13 "2004-06-26T19:01:25Z")
Kerry is just like many other democratic politicians, who are hypocites. Take Senator Ted Kennedy…he rails endlessly against our "war for oil"in the middle east. Yet, the Kennedy family has a fleet of SUVs, and Ted Himself likes to take his motor boat out on nantucket Sound. Kennedy is worse…he claims to care about the average American, yet he is working to prevent a company (Cape Cod Widpower) from installing a complex of electricity-generating windmills on Nantucket Sound. This would give some rate relief to Cape Cod electricity consumers (who pay some of the highest electric rates in the country), AND, produce electricity free of greenhouse gases! Instead, Ted blocked a vote on this (his excuse was that there is "no Fedral law regulating wind power plants). The reality: his rich friends don’t want their views of the sound “spoiled”. That’s Ted Kennedy for you…a true hypocrite! ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/14 "2004-06-26T19:03:06Z")
> [@Zagadka](#): > > Gee, a politician, who has to move a lot of campaign staff and material around constatnly, owning a SUV. Somehow, I wouldn’t be shocked. Frankly, I couldn’t care less if he owns an entire fleet of SUV’s. Trying to deny said ownership for political gain is a different matter. ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/15 "2004-06-26T19:07:33Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Kerry is just like many other democratic politicians, who are hypocites. Take Senator Ted Kennedy…he rails endlessly against our "war for oil"in the middle east. Yet, the Kennedy family has a fleet of SUVs, and Ted Himself likes to take his motor boat out on nantucket Sound. Kennedy is worse…he claims to care about the average American, yet he is working to prevent a company (Cape Cod Widpower) from installing a complex of electricity-generating windmills on Nantucket Sound. This would give some rate relief to Cape Cod electricity consumers (who pay some of the highest electric rates in the country), AND, produce electricity free of greenhouse gases! Instead, Ted blocked a vote on this (his excuse was that there is "no Fedral law regulating wind power plants). The reality: his rich friends don’t want their views of the sound “spoiled”. That’s Ted Kennedy for you…a true hypocrite! Nice tangent. Have anything else you want to get off your chest? ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/16 "2004-06-26T19:12:02Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > Frankly, I couldn’t care less if he owns an entire fleet of SUV’s. Trying to deny said ownership for political gain is a different matter. Oh, I agree. But I gave up on politicians being honest a long time ago. I now measure the degree of their dishonesty. Lying about a BJ or owning a SUV is harmless, so I can forgive them much more easily. Lying about a war I have a harder time with. It just seems to me that Republcians spend disproportionate amounts of time looking for tiny little fibs and inconsistencies in Democrats and shouting “AHA!” in size 7 red font (I’m looking at you, Milum), while feeling perfectly content being lied to by their own leadership on much more important issues. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/17 "2004-06-26T23:13:22Z")
In what sense is Kerry “anti-SUV”? If he has called out to people saying each one of us should buy fuel-efficient cars for the good of the country, then it would be hypocritical for his wife to own a SUV. But if he is supported tougher fuel efficiency requirements on auto makers or higher tax on gasoline (which I think is the case), that’s not a criticism of SUV owners and I see nothing hypocritical about his family owning an SUV. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/18 "2004-06-26T23:35:05Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > Rush has a complete listing of all the Kerry family vehicles. Of course he does. :rolleyes: I was going to ask if he had a list of what vehicles the Bush family owns, but given how deeply tied they are to Texas oil money, I imagine they’d be shamed only if they _didn’t_ drive fuel-inefficient guzzlers. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/19 "2004-06-26T23:58:10Z")
Getting on Kerry’s case for owning an SUV is like getting mad at the Unibomber because he has bad taste in hair styles. Owning an SUV is just a drop in the bucket for the Kerry’s. Their personal Gulfstream V jet burns about 3500 pounds of fuel per HOUR. That’s about 583 gallons per hour. In that hour, the Gulfstream V can go about 560 miles, giving it a fuel economy a little less than 1 mile per gallon. Actually a lot less, because the airplane spends a ton of fuel climbing to altitude and even taxxiing. Plus, he travels in it a lot. And not just doing senatorial things. The Kerrys own at least FIVE houses all across the United States. These homes need to be maintained and heated, and you can bet that every one of them is much bigger than average. Then of course there are those jet-set holidays to Europe, which happen regularly. Flying that Gulfstream to Europe one burns about the same amount of fuel a Lincoln Navigator would use in about 100,000 miles. Then there’s the “Scaramouche”, John Kerry’s 44-foot powerboat. A 44-foot powerboat is HUGE. It’s also a gigantic gas hog, and a pollution generator. A Hinkley 44 like Kerry’s gets something like .68 MPG. It has a 500 gallon tank, and a range of 360 miles. Kerry uses more energy in one year, and creates more waste and pollution, than most people will generate in their lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![E72521](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@E72521](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E72521)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287/20 "2004-06-27T00:01:05Z")
HA! One of my favorite bushisms: _We need an energy policy that encourages consumption._ Heard it on the radio yesterday. Priceless. I regret they didn’t give the time and place that he said it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-kerry-and-his-suv/252287.md?page=2)